YouTube Video Reviews

Looking for a slick, featureful Android smartphone with a big screen and a small price tag? Check out my review of the Xiaomi Redmi Note 4x:

Xiaomi is well known outside of the United States for making great gear – it’s the fifth biggest smartphone manufacturer in the world! – but did you know that it also makes excellent Android smartphones you can use in the USA too? When Gearbest sent me a Xiaomi Redmi Note 4x, I was happy to put it through its paces and check out all the smart tech jammed into the device, including a fingerprint scanner, IR transmitter so you can use the phone as a TV remote, support for dual SIM cards, FM radio receiver circuitry and app, MIUI interface and much more.

In short, if you’re looking for a smart looking Android phone with a rather startlingly inexpensive price tag or need one for a family member, the Xiaomi is definitely worth a close look. Here’s my review:

You might not realize it when you look at a pair of tiny in-ear headphones or earbuds, but it’s an extraordinarily challenging engineering task to squeeze all the elements necessary for quality sound reproduction into such a small device. A big speaker has its own challenges, of course, but miniaturization is incredibly tough. Which is why it’s so remarkable how 1More‘s design team has managed to get not one, not two, not even three, but four different drivers (basically tiny speakers) into each of the ear pieces of the brand-new quad driver in-ear headphones.

But not only have they figured out how to make some sweet sounding, full, rich in-ear headphones, but they come with the traditional 1More packaging. It’s not just earbuds in a tiny plastic box, it’s in a gift box with leather traveling case, 9 different ear tip sizes, 1/4-inch and airline adapters and even a matching shirt clip for the wire.

I couldn’t resist making a video review where I show exactly what’s included and talk about the splendid sound reproduction:

Let’s look at the engineering a bit more, however, with this breakaway illustration from the company. It’s interesting, but it’s also really cool, showing just how much is squeezed in:

Ultimately it’s all about the sound, of course, and I can only say that they’re some of the best in-ear units we’ve had the chance to audition here at AskDaveTaylor HQ.

At this point in the world of consumer electronics, bluetooth speakers are almost a dime a dozen. They’re so common that you can buy one at most supermarkets. But don’t. Why? Because it turns out that there’s a huge amount of difference between a speaker designed to be inexpensive and one that’s designed to actually sound good. Worse, plenty of speakers are ugly or have poor functionality.

That’s why I was interested when iClever sent me one of their brand new silver BoostSound BTS09 speakers, as I review and explore in my video:

You can learn more about this speaker, featuring a 4000 mAh rechargeable battery, MicroSD card slot and surprisingly solid bass and audio clarity, all in a very modern and attractive package, at Amazon too. Here’s a link: iClever BoostSound Bluetooth Speaker BTS09.

It’s no surprise that I love gadgets. Work, home, at the gym, if there’s a device or gadget on the market, odds are good that I have one or have tested one. It’s no different in my car and the new Automatic Pro represents the third ODBI (on-board diagnostic interface) device that I’ve had plugged into my 2008 Toyota Highlander Hybrid!

The Automatic Pro is also an impressive technological device. Not only does it do what you’d expect, monitor all systems and report on any diagnostic events that occur (offering way more information than a little light on your dashboard) but it tracks location via a built-in GPS device so you always know where your car is currently and has been in the past. Yes, you can finally track your teen children’s routes throughout the day, including seeing a quality-of-driving score too.

Added to this second generation Automatic device is a crash alert system — just like in the far more expensive OnStar system — and support for third party apps including the Nest thermostat (imagine, you house starts warming up as you drive home. Automatically).

It’s all very cool, and tucked into a remarkably small device that’s invisible in use, tucked under your dashboard when plugged into the OBDI port. And your car quite likely has an OBDI or OBD-II port too: just about every car made since 1996 includes one, as explained by this article at makeuseof.com.

Enough with the chatter, though. Here’s my video review of the Automatic Pro:

I found it fun and easy to work with, a handy monitoring tool that also offers insight into where you drive, how far you drive, actual gas consumed, and even whether you’re an aggressive driver or not. Really!

Curious to learn more? You can check out the Automatic Pro at automatic.com. It’s $129 with no additional subscription costs or fees. It’s pretty darn slick…

Earbuds are incredibly convenient, and there’s no arguing that slipping them in your pocket makes them super portable. But if that’s all you’re using to listen to your music, whether it’s hip-hop, classical, contemporary jazz or just Top 40 R&B, you’re missing out. It really is like watching your favorite TV show on a tiny black & white set instead of the latest ultra-high-def 4K color television.

There’s so much more to your music than you’re hearing and while you might need to make that trade-off of audiophile quality and reproductive quality versus portability when you’re on the road, certainly when you’re in your office or at home you can step up to something better! And if you’re a musician, you know exactly how important great audio reproduction can be!

Now I’ll be honest with you, I don’t carry these with me – heck, the carrying box is big enough that either of my cats could curl up comfortably for a nap! – but when I’m in my office and able to enjoy them, the sound on the DT 1990 PRO headphones really is extraordinary.

Brand new for 2016, they’re a great choice if you’re a recording artist, foley artist or otherwise really need the best audio reproduction without regard to portability or how compact they are. And that Mini-XLR headphone jack? A bit odd, but you’ll probably just pick your favorite of the two cords (coiled or straight) and never unplug it again, so no worries!

If you like the iOS smartphone operating system from Apple, you have just a few choices for what handset to purchase and own, but if you’re an Android fan, well, the world of options can be completely bewildering. Fortunately there’s Samsung, and its latest smartphone, the Samsung Galaxy S7, demonstrates why the company is a leader in the space and has one of the most popular Android devices available.

But Samsung experiments with design changes too, so as with just about every Galaxy device, the Galaxy S7 has some features that have been added, some that are restored from previous generations (but were missing from the Galaxy S6), and some that are still missed by loyal customers of the product line. Best upgrade: Support for a MicroSD card that gives you an easy 200GB or more of additional storage space. Worst lack: No user replaceable battery.

There are also the differences, some subtle, some overt, between the Galaxy S7 and the Galaxy S7 Edge. Know what’s different and make an educated decision before you pick one up!

Don’t just read what I write about this beautiful new phone with its sleek lines and quite impressive camera, however, watch my video review and find out why I think it’s one of the very best Android cellphones on the market today:

You can learn more about the Samsung Galaxy S7 by going to Samsung.com or pick one up from your favorite carrier, including AT&T Wireless.

None of us enjoys perfect health all the time. Coughs, sniffles, and even an occasional fever are part of how our immune system keeps us healthy, and while most are easily managed, fevers are something that can’t just be ignored. And if you have children, they seem to run fevers not infrequently and it can be most upsetting as a parent to have a sick baby or toddler and not really know how sick they really are.

Which is why we have thermometers. In fact, every parent has a thermometer somewhere, but classic mercury thermometers are a pain to use, slow, hard to read, and worst, you have to wake up your child to take their temperature. And taking the temperature of a newborn is something best not discussed further.

That’s why the new Withings Thermo is so terrific. It fixes all the problems with traditional thermometers: it’s fast, accurate, stores readings so you can share that with your doctor as needed, and here’s the amazing thing: you don’t have to actually touch the Thermo to skin to get an accurate reading. Two seconds. Half an inch off their forehead. And you know their temperature, without having to wake the baby!

Here’s my video review and demo:

Oh, and the “Temporal” part? That’s a blood vessel in your forehead that it’s measuring, nothing to do with time.

While the speakers on smartphones, tablets and laptops have gotten quite a bit better over the years, there’s really no substitute for having a separate speaker for sound quality and sheer volume. There are a number of different ways to connect to a speaker too, and if it’s portable, you really need the flexibility!

Enter the Willnorn SoundPlus, a slick little portable bluetooth speaker that offers four different ways for you to play music from your favorite device or devices: bluetooth 4.1 (which supports A2DP if you’re knowledgeable about the internals of bluetooth), NFC aka Near Field Communication, a direct AUX wire from your device to the speaker and even a MicroSD TF card, the same memory card you can slip into lots of smartphones and tablets.

But that’s not all. The speaker also features IPx5 weather resistance, meaning that if you’re enjoying it at a picnic and it starts to rain you won’t have to worry about your SoundPlus getting hurt!

Since it’s portable that means it needs to work from an internal battery — you don’t want to drag a power cord out to the picnic table! — and the SoundPlus is rated to have a battery that can play up to 24 hours of music non-stop. That’s a lot of picnic food, miles and miles of trekking, a long, long bike ride or even just plenty of time to listen without worrying about having to recharge the unit.

And the SoundPlus? Here’s a handy link to pick one up at Amazon.com if you’re interested: Willnorn SoundPlus speaker at Amazon.com. $39.99. Don’t forget to use promo code LC4LK9DC to save an additional $11 on the price, bringing the SoundPlus down to a mere $28.99!

Disclosure: Willnorn sent us a speaker to review and paid a small fee in addition to cover production expenses.